This invention relates generally to stretchers for canvas or other art work surfaces and, more particularly, to stretchers that have an arcuate, e.g., elliptical, periphery.
Artists have long chosen to create artistic renderings having elliptical or circular peripheries, to achieve a particular artistic effect. One popular means for providing the surface upon which to create such a rendering has been the use of an arcuately-formed wooden stretcher over which the artist's material is stretched and fastened. Unlike a rectangular wooden stretcher, which may be easily assembled from readily available wood board material cut to the desired lengths, an arcuate wooden stretcher has typically been produced by cutting flat wooden board material into the actual arcuate shape desired and by cutting out a similar shape of smaller dimension to yield a flat wooden ring over which the artist's material may be stretched and fastened. Such arcuate cutting of wood necessitates special preparation, such as preparing a template of the final shape for use as a guide in cutting the wood, as well as special tooling, such as a jigsaw to make a curved wood cut. Moreover, considerable time is required to make such an arcuate cut accurately, as well as to correct imperfections in the cut and perfect the final arcuate shape.
While mass production of such arcuate stretchers has made them an item generally available at art supply merchandisers, such mass production allows only a limited number of standardized shapes and sizes to be readily available at moderate cost. An artist desiring a non-standard size or shape either would need to construct such a stretcher, thus requiring special tools and painstaking accuracy, or would need to have such a stretcher custom built.
Artists often prefer to construct their own stretchers not only to control the stretcher's exact dimensions, but also to economize by the considerable savings in material costs in self-production of stretchers over the cost of ready made stretchers. Self-production of rectangular stretchers from raw materials, or from do-it-yourself kits consisting of precut boards that may be assembled in a variety of rectangular configurations, is easily accomplished because the only straight cuts are required to produce a rectangle. However, the artist desiring an arcuate stretcher typically would need to invest in both tooling and time.
It should be appreciated from the foregoing that there is need for an art work stretcher assembly adapted to provide a variety of arcuate shapes and dimensions, which can be assembled at lower cost by either a manufacturer, a retailer, or an individual end user, which can be customized to an individual artist's specifications with no special tooling or expertise required and with only limited labor required, and which can be shipped and stocked in component form, to be assembled by either the merchant or the end user. The present invention fulfills this need.